Tourism

Tourism is crucial to New Zealand's economy and a vital source of employment for New Zealanders.

Our goal is to grow the economic value of tourism to New Zealand while enhancing natural and cultural resources, and providing outstanding experiences for visitors and New Zealanders alike.

We recognise that genuine sustainable development outcomes are key to ensuring the long-term success of the industry. New Zealand boasts some of the most stunning landscapes and natural scenery in the world. A mecca of outdoor beauty, out natural landscapes are a key reason why visitors choose New Zealand as a destination. As visitor numbers grow it is vitally important that we continue to preserve and protect our natural environment. It is also crucial that New Zealand's communities and tourism infrastructure are able to keep pace with forecast tourism growth.

To tackle this, our Sustainability Framework now has a sharper focus on sustainable tourism - the impact and quality of the tourism growth that our airline enables.

You can also read about key activities and projects in the report: Sustainable Tourism, World class events and Destination promotion.

Sharing Māori culture

We recognise Māori culture as a foundation of New Zealand's heritage and a key element of our tourism proposition. As the national carrier, we are in a unique position to embrace and share Māori culture with New Zealanders and overseas visitors. We regularly use Te Reo to greet our customers and in 2016 have improved the use of Te Reo in other ways across our business.

We now farewell our customers using "Mā te wā." Translating closely to 'See you again,' we invested in training an initial 25 cabin crew to become ambassadors of the Māori language and culture onboard our flights, and we launched "Te Kete Tikanga Māori" - our own Māori language and culture app for employees. We have also worked with the Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (Māori Language Commission) to introduce the "Waha Tohu," a Māori language identifier pin that can be worn by fluent Te Reo speaking New Zealanders, including Air New Zealanders.